'Our N-reactors have many safety features'

Top atomic scientists on Friday said it would be wrong to compare the nuclear crisis in Japan with accident in Chernobyl in Ukraine as there was no large-scale radioactive release and vouched for the safety of such reactors in the country.

Top atomic scientists on Friday said it would be wrong to compare the nuclear crisis in Japan with accident in Chernobyl in Ukraine as there was no large-scale radioactive release and vouched for the safety of such reactors in the country.

The scientists also made a strong pitch for utilisation of the nuclear option to meet the country's fast growing energy needs.

Seeking to differentiate between the Chernobyl accident and the incidents in Japan, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee said the tsunami-hit Fukushima atomic plant had not released any fission energy from the reactor core.

"After the earthquake, all reactors at Fukushima shutdown safely and fission power was no longer coming out of it," he said in an interaction at the Indian Women Press Corps.

Banerjee said the problem in Fukushima was due to the heat release mechanism coupled with the generation of hydrogen.

He said all the 20 nuclear reactors in the country had several passive safety features which can continue to cool the reactor for eight hours even in the case of a power black out.

Banerjee said PM Manmohan Singh has ordered a thorough review of the safety measures which was being carried out.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which operates all the 20 nuclear plants in the country, has formed four groups to study safety measures for each of the four type of nuclear reactors under operation.